Part 2...
Continuing on with ideas to revitialize the setting...
#2 -
Artifacts & Relics.
Greyhawk's second most marketable feature (IMO) are it's widely recognized Artifacts & Relics.
The Sword of Kas, The Hand & Eye of Vecna, The Rod of Seven Parts, The Mighty Servant of Luek-O, The Machine of Lum the Mad, The Invulnerable Coat of Arnd, The Demonomicon of Iggwilv, The Codex of Infinite Planes, The Bringer of Doom, The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, The Orbs of Dragonkind, The Iron Flask of Tuerny the Merciless, Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn, Fragarach and the Swords of Answering, The Crook of Rao etc...
Many have been and could be again the focal point for a sprawling high level adventure.
The Main Event.
Greyhawk has always been under the shadow of Tharizdun's return and to bring Greyhawk into 4e (and lean more towards a "Points of Light" setting), a little
taste of Tharizdun should be enough.
His potential "full" return would be best left to a 4e adventure in the future.
The Elemental War: In trying to think of the most interesting (from a new player's perspective) landscape-altering event that really plays into both Greyhawk's history and some of the 4th edition changes - Elemental Evil feels like a good place to start.
It should occur very close to the current 3e timeline, but a century before the 4e timeline begins. The Princes of Elemental Evil, along with powerful Tharizdun cultists, utilize the Codex of Infinite Planes to tap into some of Tharizdun’s power (and unbeknownst to them, some of his influence leaks out from his prison). It culminates into a veritable elemental
siege of Oerth that alters the very landscape.
Major forces of Good and Evil (both mortal & god) put aside their differences to drive off the army of evil elementals and their creations. Many powerful personages die during the war, but eventually they prevail, the Codex vanishing in the confusion.
Altering the Landscape:
Greyhawk has always had some great locales, but few on a grand scale. If I were to try to revitalize the setting, I'd want to be able to take one look at the Greyhawk Map and go -
cool.
Right now we have the Land of Black Ice, the Rift Canyon and the Sea of Dust. All great regions with loads of potential, but there is not much else that stands out. So one thing I would do is spice up the landscape a little, and an Elemental War would certainly be a good catalyst. Apart from the various smaller changes that occur when elementals lay seige to a world (cities falling, forests burning, etc. there are a number of more significant changes. Here’s a few ideas I’ve been tossing around…
The Iron Desert (Ilbasan): The Elementals secure a rogue Acheron Cube, lost in the Elemental Chaos and transport it Greyhawk space to use as a staging ground. At the culmination of the war a band of heroes succeed in destroying the cube, which then falls to Oerth, striking primarily in the Great Kindom of Northern Aerdy, near the border with the Bone March, creating an immense crater with titanic fragments of solid metal scattered in the region, including one mountain-sized one (later named Khatun). A spiderweb network of rift-canyons spiral out across the landscape and the entire region is turned into an iron-sand desert. Ironstorms, strangely mutated creatures and small clans of riftrunners ply their way through the region. If you can get to a fragment, there are precious metals to be gleaned there. Khatun is the goldmine though, and several powerful clans of dwarves have banded together are slowly carving a home in it. However, unknown to all (even the Elementals who used it) the Acheron Cube was prison and deep in the heart of Khatun it waits for the greedy dwarves to reach it.
The Sundered Moon: Towards the end of the war the “Final Solution” of the Elemental Princes is to send a titanic comet of living elemental ice to destroy the world. The Gods themselves must act, combining their power to move the moon Celene into its path (pruning some of their number in the sacrifice of power?). The gambit is successful as the moon is struck by the comet, reducing it to a crumbling, tumbling ruin of stone and ice orbiting the planet. However, the fragments are not stable - as the remnants of the moon passes overhead every 91 days, meteor storms follow in its wake. Most of time they are relatively harmless, other times a more significant piece falls creating havoc.
Fire & Ice: A large piece of elemental ice from the original comet that struck the moon, tumbles to Oerth, impacting in southern Keoland. As a result the Hellfurnaces explode in a fury of activity which continues to this day, turning the skies in the region perpetually black with ash. Major lava flows are common, including a new large molten lake in the Yomanry, and a new nation emerges ruled by Fire Giants. As for the Icefall, it initially melts considerably, creating a great lake of it's own with broken ice mountains and islands scattered in the middle. The magic of the elemental ice eventually stabilizes and turns the region into an arctic zone in the heartlands of the Flanaess. A dim intelligence still remains in the elemental ice, slowly regathering it's strength…
Eye of the World: Deep in the jungles of Hepmonaland, an ancient Suloise site is discovered where they could practice their most dangerous magics far from civilized lands. Tharizdun cultists try to use the xxxx to discover his prison plane but unwittingly find the Far Realm. Unreality bleeds into the Prime plane and begins warping the landscape. A great eye, the size of large hill grows at the centre of the region and the cthuhlian fun begins. Villages and wildlife are slowly warped into squamous horrors that now roam the yellow-steaming alien jungle. Perhaps some inspired a la “The Mist”. The Scarlet Brotherhood begin to investigate. The Eye however is only the first appendage to grow…
Next up - new "attention gettting" monsters...
